Inheritance-of-Rage

INHERITANCE OF RAGE is a deeply moving film about the cyclical nature of rage perpetrated against women and their children. Our feature-length documentary takes you from the beginning of the cycle of rage through the court trials, prison sentencing, and mothers' lives in prison and during rehabilitation--and its impact on the children.

INHERITANCE OF RAGE is unique in its focus on the children who end up in foster care, where sometimes the abuse continues at the hands of strangers. Too often these children end up with the family of the dead abuser, subjected to the abuse that the father experienced when he was a child himself. Very little is done to help these children recover from the trauma of losing both parents in one violent act of rage. An abused mother may spend years away from her children, with little visitation or connection with the little lives she tried to protect, unable to protect them from becoming outcasts.

INHERITANCE OF RAGE will investigate solutions in affiliation with Voices Set Free, a non-profit organization created to assist these women while they are still incarcerated as well as after they obtain their release. We do not use the word "freedom": these women are rarely really free, but are bound in a different, subtler prison created by laws of an uninformed society that doesn't encourage rehabilitation. Our film will follow individual women at Voices Set Free, such as Susan, a mother of four who suffered years of unimaginable humiliation, battering, fear and violent sexual abuse before finally hitting her wall. Her 22 years in prison were only the tip of the iceberg. One of her sons died shortly after her release from prison and before she had an opportunity to be reunited with him - she still mourns the loss. Yet Susan presents the glimmer of a success story; others struggle without much hope of obtaining decent jobs or reasonable housing because they are convicted felons. These are the women that Susan reaches out to daily, showing them the ropes on the outside, and offering hope, understanding and human respect.

INHERITANCE OF RAGE is a film about courage and hope and solutions. The therapists, social workers, lawyers and educators of Voices Set Free are passionately dedicated to their mission. By helping us with this documentary, you will be giving abused women and children concrete tools to rebuild their lives without shame.

INHERITANCE OF RAGE ends by asking each viewer, if one out of every three women is abused, how many of these women unnecessarily fill our prisons, and how many of their children will survive the abuse only to grow up to be abusers themselves? Please get involved in helping our project, becoming part of the solution that finally breaks the cycle of rage.